Business Spotlight: Prodigy Pixel LLC

Owners: Jason Nill and Aaron Van Gorp

Founded: January 2005

Address: 633 W. Walnut St., Springfield, MO 65806

Phone: (417) 873-3400

Fax: (866) 433-5443

Web: www.prodigypixel.com

E-mail: contact@prodigypixel.com

Services/Products: Creative Web, print and media design

Annual Revenues: $300,000

Employees: 3

Jason Nill and Aaron Van Gorp followed their entrepreneurial hearts in January 2005 to open their creative Web, print and media design group, Prodigy Pixel LLC.

The upstart is seemingly worlds away from the overseas mission fields where each grew up: Nill as a missionary kid in Spain and Ecuador, and Van Gorp in Brussels, Belgium. Their paths merged, perhaps divinely, at Evangel University.

Now, they’ve written their own mission: to offer Web site development and hosting; print advertising, newsletters and branding; and online media and video production largely to area nonprofits.

From the field to the office

After graduating from Evangel – Nill with a degree in broadcasting and Van Gorp in computer science – both worked for the Assemblies of God-owned Global University in Springfield. After getting to know each other at work, they started working as consultants by targeting missionaries as clients in 2004. They continue to help missionaries raise funds with branding, newsletters and direct mail.

According to Van Gorp, there are about 1,500 AG missionaries, and in the last two years Prodigy Pixel has gained about 10 percent to 15 percent market share among those missionaries. “And that’s just one denomination,” he notes. “We’re hoping to branch out to others.”

After about a year of consulting with missionaries, Nill and Van Gorp created Prodigy Pixel to expand their services to other nonprofits and small businesses. “We kind of did it slowly,” Van Gorp recalls. “We did a lot of nights and weekends to get us started. The connections that we had to the nonprofit groups were a big key, too.”

Nill and Van Gorp also didn’t get a commercial loan right away and ran their business without much debt. In June, Prodigy Pixel took out a Small Business Administration-backed loan through Commerce Bank for $188,800 to purchase their current 1,860-square-foot location at 633 W. Walnut St. in Springfield. They had rented space at 607 N. Jefferson Ave.

Design by collaboration

The entrepreneurial charge has blossomed into a $300,000 annual venture for the young businessmen. Nonprofits consume about 80 percent of their work, and small businesses account for the rest. Their client list includes Hope Community Church (Web site, www.hopechurch.net, and promotions), ServiceWorld Computer Center (www.serviceworld.com), Panache Boutique (advertising, branding, promotions and www.panachespringfield.com under development) and several entities through the AG World Missions, such as Africa’s Hope and Life Publishers.

No matter the client, the Prodigy Pixel creators say they work hard to understand their desires and then deliver creative solutions through services that range from $65 an hour for design to $2,500 to create a basic online presence. Prodigy Pixel’s revenues break down evenly between Web and print services.

Those who work with them say the approach is working.

“When I lay out a strategy, they typically get it and they run with it,” explains Charity Reeb, a marketing consultant who has collaborated with Prodigy Pixel on more than 20 projects, including ads and brochures for Project Rescue, a group that fights sex trafficking in India and Nepal. “They really will take the input that I give them and think about it objectively, ‘OK, how can we still do something fresh and innovative that we think might add to it but without taking away from the strategy?’”

The Prodigy Pixel crew whipped up a postcard for Mast-R-Pix co-owner Stacie Edwards, whom they met at a Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce Expo. “They really talked to me and got a feel for what we are trying to do and the look I was trying to go for,” Edwards says of the card she distributes via mail and at networking events. “More people ask me about it.”

‘Taste of our own medicine’

With an eye on the future, Van Gorp explains that they need a “taste of our own medicine,” as far as marketing goes. The company has relied on referrals, networking and Web searches.

Hiring more employees also is possible soon.

“We have a pretty-laid back environment,” Van Gorp says of the office culture. “We want to enjoy what we do, but also get projects done and deliver them on time.”

To accomplish that, Van Gorp says they outsource some work but try to do as much in house as possible. They utilize other business entities under an umbrella company of Prodigy Pixel Service Alliance Inc., including:

• Gravani Studios; a photography/ videography company specializing in weddings;

• Noble Lion, a credit-card processing company; and

• Missions Linked, services branded and priced just for missionaries.

“We’d like to have all these different things running fairly well without too much involvement from us,” Van Gorp says, referring to the owners’ three-year goals. “Maybe (we’ll move) to more of a consulting role with our clients and moving away from doing all the actual production.”